I’ve been running low on food lately. I went through all but one or two cans of Pringles that I bought a while back (when I bought 10 for $10). I’m good on a can of Pringles for most of the day, even though I eat it all at once. I finally ate an old can of store brand ravioli today, and that’s all I’ve eaten (with the exception of a few handfuls of nacho cheese flavored sunflower seeds). Tonight, I finally picked up a loaf of store brand bread and a 4 pound jar of peanut butter. I know I have peanut butter, I just didn’t know how much. And I’m pretty sure I have about one and a half squeeze bottles of grape jelly (if not, I’m boned). As I’ve occasionally seen off brand goods to be slightly cheaper than store brand, I did thoroughly check all the prices. You’ll never realize how many different breads there are at your grocery store until you compare the prices on all of them. I was also quite amused that a very small (small enough to wing at someone’s head) jar of GIANT peanut butter is cheaper, by weight, than the 4 pound jar of JIF. Anyway, what I’m getting at is this: Most people don’t realize that, to get by, they can eat very cheaply and very little.
Last night I was reading a blog post about Prosper and the people trying to get loans who put their monthly food expenses as $100, or less, and discussion about the feasibility of it and how realistic those figures might be. Such reading and further research into cheap eating blogs led me to the Hungry For A Month blog. One of the things he noticed was that, after not too long, his body adjusted to eating hardly anything, and if he ate too much (say, as much as he used to eat on a regular basis), it didn’t particularly go over well. This I’ve known, for quite a while. Back in high school I used to stuff my face. I lived off of junk food, and actually found that I was taking in over 4000 calories a day, sometimes even that much just during lunch. When I started college back in the late summer of 2005, I was your typical poor college student with nothing to eat. That’s all it took to knock me down to where I am, have been for over 2 years, and where Evan Lansing found himself – able to live just fine on very little food. And yes, if I eat anywhere near what I used to be able to shove down my throat, I feel terrible, like it’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Okay, I lie, I ate the leftover Subway sub tonight that has been in my truck the last 2 or 3 days. Yeah, gross, whatever. Nothing was growing on it, and as long as it stays down, I don’t care. The point is, I can live on a few PB&J sandwiches a day. I don’t even get bored with them. The loaf of bread will last me through 12 sandwiches, which is 4 or 5 days. For a 79 cent loaf of bread. The huge jar of peanut butter will last quite a bit longer, though I couldn’t even venture a guess as to how long. I guess we’ll find out, but I’ll give it a week and a half, two weeks tops. For a $5 jar of peanut butter. The jelly, on the other hand, I haven’t the slightest idea how long it’ll last, nor do I remember how much it costs. It’s not the cheapest money can buy, as it’s Smucker’s, and it’s in the squeeze bottle. I’m sorry, but I can not stand trying to spread jelly with a knife – it just doesn’t work (for me). If GIANT comes out with their own store brand squeeze bottle jelly, fantastic, I’ll buy it. But until then, it’s Smucker’s. There’s only one other brand that does the squeeze bottle thing, it’s that other popular brand that I can’t remember the name of, and it’s a bit more expensive. So I’m doing the best I can. I figure all in all that’s about $5 a week for food, a la $20 or so a month.
With a little conditioning, everyone can eat a lot less than they do right now, and save a heck of a lot of money in the process.
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It’s probably Welch’s.